Spirit
torah portion

O

ur congregation recent-
ly hosted a group of 
seventh-grade public 
school students as part of the 
Religious Diversity Journeys, 
a program sponsored by the 
Interfaith Leadership Council of 
Metropolitan Detroit. 
The students asked 
many questions about 
our synagogue and Jewish 
tradition. Whenever I 
explain the aspects of 
our sanctuary, I have the 
opportunity to talk about 
the ner tamid, the eternal 
light above our ark. Our 
sanctuary also has two 
golden, seven-branched 
menorahs reminiscent of 
the menorah that stood 
in the Tabernacle, as 
discussed in this week’
s 
Torah reading.
At the outset of this 
week’
s portion, we read 
that God spoke to Moses saying, 
“You shall further instruct the 
Israelites to bring you clear oil of 
beaten olives for lighting.
”
Commenting on this verse, 
the Talmud says that God is 
making a point about who 
needs the light of the menorah. 
God is telling Moses that the oil 
is requested “for you,
” not “for 
Me.
” God doesn’
t need the light; 
we, the Jewish people do. 
That makes sense, of course. 
The menorah served as a sym-
bol of God’
s presence for the 
children of Israel when it stood 
in the Tabernacle and later in 
the Temple in Jerusalem.
The ner tamid we find in our 
synagogues today also serves as 
a symbol of God’
s presence and 
as a reminder of the fact that the 
synagogue of today is an echo of 
the ancient Temple.
One commentator extrapo-

lates from the Talmud’
s point 
that the mitzvah of the oil 
applies much more broadly. It 
isn’
t only that God doesn’
t need 
the oil; God doesn’
t need any of 
the mitzvot. Even as we do the 
mitzvot “for God,
” they are for 
us. Even as we are shedding the 
light of our actions on the 
world, we derive the ben-
efit of these actions. 
There is a tricky but 
meaningful cycle here: 
God gives us the mitzvot; 
we do them as part of our 
service to God; doing the 
mitzvot helps us shed 
light within and beyond 
our own lives. So, the 
mitzvot are a gift twice 
over — they are meaning-
ful opportunities to act in 
beautiful ways and, once 
enacted, they improve 
our lives and the world 
around us. 
There is a difficulty here. 
There are moments when it 
is hard to see how the perfor-
mance of a mitzvah sheds light. 
There are moments when it is 
difficult to gather the motiva-
tion to do a challenging mitzvah 
or to gather our own convic-
tion and concentration to do 
a mitzvah well. I believe these 
moments are a natural part of 
life. Sometimes we can’
t see the 
forest for the trees. 
The beauty of the explanation 
of the oil is that it can help us 
focus on the broad meaning 
of a life of mitzvot (the forest) 
even during moments when a 
challenging mitzvah (one tree) 
seems to be standing in our 
way. 

Rabbi Steven Rubenstein is rabbi of 

Congregation Beth Ahm in West 

Bloomfield.

Parshat 

Tetzaveh: 

Exodus 

27:20-30:10; 

Deuteronomy 

25:17-19;

I Samuel 

15:2-34. 

(Shabbat 

Zachor)

Rabbi Steven 
Rubenstein

28 | MARCH 5 • 2020 

Spreading The Light

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